Although he's best known for his prowess on the golf course, Peter Jacobsen absolutely exemplifies that oft-misused phrase. Some people write a book and have a podcast and declare themselves renaissance men, but Peter Jacobsen actually deserves the moniker. From an early age, Peter loved golf. More than that, he knew he had something special inside him - a real talent for the game. So it was no surprise to him or to anyone around him when he started the PGA Tour in 1976. He approached the game with both levity and seriousness, earning him a reputation as a jokester and golfing pro. He was respected for his skill and liked for his good nature.
Peter Jacobsen's game took a turn for the better when he sought advice from Jim Hardy. Though Jim didn't have Peter's success on the Tour, he was always regarded as an expert teacher. It was early in both their careers, and Peter was floundering. His swing wasn't working, his confidence was mostly shot, and the balls simply weren't falling for him. Jim suggested he try a different sort of swing. Until then, Peter had just swung the club without much thought as to form. He had learned a certain way to swing - the only way to swing, as far as many golfers were concerned - and just stuck with it. It had got him this far, so why examine the mechanics of it?
Jim Hardy changed the way Peter Jacobsen played the game. Recently, Jim had begun realizing that perhaps his fortunes lay in instruction. Rather than focusing all his energy on playing the Tour, Jim realized that maybe he was best suited to teaching, to helping other golfers realize their talents. In Peter Jacobsen, Jim Hardy saw real potential. But he also saw a flawed swing. Jim urged Peter to try a "one plane swing"; as opposed to the more common "two plane swing," the one plane swing keeps the club head on a constant, steady trajectory. It stays on a single spatial plane, giving the swing additional power and follow through. Peter Jacobsen responded immediately. His new swing - with his arms and shoulders aligned, on the same plane throughout the entire swing of the club - gave him untold efficiency, accuracy, and power. His game improved by leaps and bounds, and he's still out there today, in 2008, winning seniors majors and loving life.
Baron Alexander von Humboldt ?The Last Renaissance Man Alexander von Humboldt was one of the first persons to move geographical studies from the ancient into the current era. The Prussian natural scientist and geologist traveled around a great deal of South America, studying the environment, mountaineering and monitoring astronomical events. His contributions to science spanned biology, geography, climatology, geology, hydrology, among others. Charles Darwin called him ?the greatest scientific traveler who ever lived? and he is widely considered to be the last renaissance man, who could gather within himself a substantial portion of human knowledge. Humboldt was born into a noble family in Berlin on September 14, 1769, of German and French Huguenot parentage. While he was still a boy his father, an army officer, died. The young Humboldt studied at the universities of Frankfurt an der Oder and Gottingen from 1787 and later went to the School of Mines at Freiburg in Saxony. While there he studied under the famous geologist A.G. Werner. He became wealthy enough to plan a 5-year period of exploration after his mother's death in 1796. The household was marred by his mother's ?cold and aloof? nature. A private tutor educated Humboldt and his brother, Wilhelm, who turned out to be a distinguished economist with worldwide fame as well that lives to this day. Humboldt never married but derived great joy from friendships with colleagues and others and also from his brother's friendly household. In 1792 he joined the mining department of the Prussian Government and promotion came quickly given his brilliance and dedication. Humboldt sailed from A Coruna, Spain on June 5, 1799, armed with powerful recommendations from the Spanish king, and headed for Caracas. At that time Spain was preoccupied with the pursuit of wealth and conquest in its American colonies. In February 1800 he left the Venezuelan coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco River. Four months and 1725 miles of uncultivated and unoccupied country later, while traveling by foot and canoe, Humboldt established the existence of a communication between the water systems of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. This bifurcation, known as the Casiquiare Canal, is the only place in the world where two river systems that flow in different directions (the Orinoco goes north and the Negro/Amazon flows southeast) have any kind of fluvial communication. The existence of this canal was a rumor dismissed as impossible by European geographers at the time. Catholic priests had originally reported it, but provided no scientific evidence to it in the early XVIII century. It was a tremendously dangerous environment with alligators, jaguars and swarms of biting insects, aside from numerous uncontacted tribes that are today recognized as the Yanomami. At times he and his traveling companion, botanist Aime Bonpland, had no food, and conditions were almost unbearable. Still isolated, still unwelcoming, still undeveloped, this wild region is little changed today.
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